Donor Appreciation

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21st June

I was working at ALAC today, helping prepare for a Donor/Volunteer Appreciation event this evening.

I spent the morning making fancy sandwiches with VJ (a very sweet 19 year old volunteer) and talking about the differences between the US and UK. One of the biggies was that studentsd in the US have to pay $30k for University education if they dont get a scholarship or any financial support. It makes my 9,ooo GBP education look cheap!

Nancy very kindly treated me to lunch at the Elephant Bar, which was lovely.

In ther afternoon, after making desserts and nibbles, we started transfering stuff from the office to the venue (which was a very fancy apartment building near the office). The Landmark apartments sell for millions and their lobby area boasts a huge oak library, crystal chandeliers...it goes on. We set the venue up and srank wine while we waited for the 100 guests to show up. It was a really nice, ifnormal occasion. There was an hour of mingling and an hour of talks from various staff members, who explained what their department had achieved in the past year and their plans going forward. Awards were then presented to volunteers who had gone the extra mile. One was poignant in particular, as the recipient (who had fundraised for the American Lung Association for years and had never smoked) had been diagnosed with Lung Cancer in January and died two weeks prior to the event. His family acceptedthe award on his behalf. There was not a dry eye in the house.

The event ended at about 7.30pm and I stayed to help clean up and take stuff back to the office.

22nd June

Gym, job applications and then fun!

Jon picked me up at 3pm and we headed to his colleage, Ali's house. She had asked Jon is he would take some portraits of her children, Nicholas (3) and McKenzie (1). We spent the afternoon getting to know the children and trying to get them to pose for pictures. I helped Jon with the lighting. Ali's husband, Mike came home at about 5pm and started a BBQ for us. Ali and Mike are officially the NICEST couple I have ever met. They are such warm, caring human beings. I am so glad I got to meet them and their children are gorgeous. I had forgotten how much I love babies and got on well with little McKenzie.

We had burgers and 'brats' for dinner and chatted non stop. I was genuinely sad to have to leave.

Jon had an episode with his stomach as we left and panicked me. He had to pull over as he lost his sight and was on the verge of being sick. We managed to get home and as soon as he got in a hot bath, things returned to normal, but he asked me to get ready to call an amublance at one point.

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